Champ's appreciation was considerable. For a moment, according to Keith, it was downright criminal.

''He said, 'I appreciate the vote, Bob.' Then he walked over and pulled out a roll of cash and stuck it right in my pocket.''

Keith said he dropped the money onto Williams' desk, told Williams he felt insulted, and walked out of his office.

Was it bribery? Or just a misunderstanding?

Racketeering? Or only a clumsy attempt to help a friend in public office?

The sometimes fine line that divides those choices will be the central issue when Champ Williams stands trial on charges that his airport restaurant business was a corrupt organization that pumped untold thousands of dollars into the campaigns of pro-Williams politicians in an effort to maintain and extend his 30-year monopoly on the airport food concession that made him a millionaire.

Williams, 72, has denied ever making bribes or illegal campaign contributions. He will plead not guilty to the charges at his arraignment in Orange County Circuit Court on Friday. Williams' attorney Saturday would not comment on Keith's account of the meeting in 1976.

Stephen Maroney, assistant Orlando bureau chief for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said prosecutors will try to prove that Williams' alleged illegal campaign contributions were really a form of bribery.

''The indictment is alleging that Champ Williams and his corporation abused the campaign contribution system in order to gain influence with candidates and officeholders, and that this pattern continued from 1974 to 1982,'' Maroney said.

The indictments of Williams on racketeering charges and of four others charged with lying to the grand jury are not yet two weeks old.

There have been only a handful of documents filed in court, and few witnesses are willing to discuss the matter.

There is much about the case, about the evidence of Williams' innocence or guilt, that the public will not know for many months.

But several things are clear already:

-- The case against Williams is both complex and dated, two points that experts said last week may be serious weaknesses.

The indictment claims that the crimes occurred during a 12-year period that began with alleged bribes to Keith in August 1974, nearly 12 years ago.

Court records now include a preliminary witness list in Williams' case. It contains 61 names. Officials close to the case say that number could easily double or triple.

The complexity of the racketeering case rivals that of the tangled five- year airport squabble that was the genesis of the charges.

That fight pitted Williams and his supporters on the city council and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority against those who fought his attempt at a 20-year extension to his concession rights.

Williams narrowly lost that bid in a bitter contest that left many officials, particularly then-Orlando Mayor Carl Langford, charging that Williams had manipulated the political process.

Three of the people indicted on perjury charges Jan. 15 -- former city council members Shelton Adams, Arthur ''Pappy'' Kennedy and Don Crenshaw -- were supporters of Williams during the airport fight.

Grand jurors charged that the three were lying when they said they weren't involved in illegal campaign contributions with Williams.

-- The case involves what Williams' lawyer called a ''bizarre'' interpretation of Florida's bribery law.

Sources close to the investigation concede that they will have to rely on what one called ''novel'' legal interpretations.

According to interviews with several attorneys, law enforcement officials and legal experts, the issue is this: Williams is charged under a law that makes it corruption -- literally a ''racket'' -- to engage in various patterns of illegal behavior.

An advantage to prosecutors in using the racketeering law is that it allows them to prosecute for crimes that would otherwise be outside the statute of limitations. They only have to prove that at least two similar crimes were committed and that at least one of them occurred within the past five years.

The 26 crimes covered in Florida's racketeering law include murder, robbery, arson and bribery -- but not making illegal campaign contributions.

It is a crime in Florida, a misdemeanor, to give campaign contributions without following election laws, for example to give money in someone else's name to avoid reporting requirements. However, even a long pattern of violating that law is not a racketeering offense.

And the payments or offers that the indictment accuses Williams of making to public officials and candidates are apparently all campaign contributions, officials said.

Therefore, under the racketeering law, prosecutors will have to prove that the payments or offers Williams allegedly made were bribes.